This book solidified for me something I think I’d always known -something we all know – but which I’d never quite put into words: Tina Fey is just much better than Amy Poehler. I know! I feel bad to say it. But it’s just true. I read Amy Poelher’s YES PLEASE, and couldn’t quite understand why she’d written it. It didn’t seem to have much point, But now I get it – clearly, she wanted to write BOSSYPANTS. Who wouldn’t? It’s a really fun little book. I can’t quite tell you what makes this book so appealing. It’s partly that it’s comic. Here for example is a mother’s prayer for her daughter:
Lead her away from acting but not all the way to finance. Something where she can make her own hours but still feel intellectually fulfilled and get outside sometimes and not have to wear high heels
Grant her a rough patch from 12 to 17. Let her draw horses and be interested in Barbies for much too long, for childhood is short – a tiger flower blooming magenta for one day – and adulthood is long, and dry humping in cars will wait
It’s also very wise:
A friend once told me, “don’t wear what fashion designers tell you to wear. Where what they wear.” His point being that the most designers, no matter what they throw onto the runway, favour simple, flattering pieces for themselves
And full of fine observation:
At a certain point your body wants to be disgusting. While your teens and 20s without identifying and emphasizing your “best features, “your late 30s and 40s are about fighting back decay. You pluck your patchy beard daily. Your big toe may start to turn jauntily inward. Over night you may grow one long straight white pubic hair.
I recommend it. It made a long flight fly by.